"Brin, David - Uplift 05 - Infinity's Shore" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brin David)

His lungs were already making demands, so he obeyed
instinct, flicking an upward spiral toward the glistening
surface. Ready or not, Jijo, here I come!

He loved piercing the tense boundary of sky and sea,
flying weightless for an instant, then broaching with a
splash and spume of exhalation. Still, he hesitated before
inhaling. Instruments predicted an Earthlike atmosphere,
yet he felt a nervous tremor drawing breath.

If anything, the air tasted better than the water! Kaa
whirled, thrashing his tail in exuberance, glad Lieutenant
Tsh't had let him volunteer for thisЧto be the first dolphin,
the first Earthling, ever to swim this sweet, foreign sea.

Then his eye stroked a jagged, gray-brown line, span-
ning one horizon, very close.

The shore.

Mountains.

He stopped his gyre to stare at the nearby continentЧ
inhabited, they now knew. But by whom?

There was not supposed to be any sapient life on Jijo.

Maybe they're just hiding here, the way we are, from a
hostile cosmos.

That was one theory.

At least they chose a pleasant world, he added, relishing
the air, the water, and gorgeous ranks of cumulus hovering
over a giant mountain. / wonder if the fish are good to eat.

* As we await you,

* Chafing in this cramped airlock,

* Should we play pinochle? *

Kaa winced at the lieutenant's sarcasm. Hurriedly, he sent
back pulsed waves.

* Fortune smiles again,

* On our weary band of knaves.

* Welcome, friends, to Ifni's Shore. *